


tables they are turning (bridges they are burning)

by pg13



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Chuunin Exams, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Misogyny, Role Reversal, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-11 21:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15325152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pg13/pseuds/pg13
Summary: It's not until she's convulsing and the heat from her neck is spreading that she wonders if maybe she should've listened when her mother told her to reconsider being a shinobi.





	tables they are turning (bridges they are burning)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is rly short bc i wanted to have it posted on my birthday!!! im 18 today and ive been thinking abt this fic idea since i was like 13 so it felt right to post today anyways i lov team 7

Sakura is just thirteen, with shaking hands and sore legs, and she can feel tears prickling in her eyes. Team 7 wasn't ready for the chuunin exams. With her nails digging into the mossy tree branch beneath her and the dirt digging under them, she wishes she hadn't come. She knew she wasn't strong enough for this yet. She's supposed to be the smart one, but if she was smart they wouldn't be in this mess at all.

 

If Sakura was smart, Naruto wouldn't be hanging by a kunai.

 

If Sakura was smart, Sasuke wouldn't be limping on a leg he had to stab to snap out of it and save her.

 

If Sakura was smart, Orochimaru wouldn't be stretching his neck out, longer than anyone should be able to, and coming straight at Sasuke.

 

If Sakura was smart, she definitely wouldn't slam Sasuke out of the way and she wouldn't hear the skin on her neck puncture and feel her blood pool under Orochimaru's teeth.

 

His teeth don't just leave her be once he realizes he's missed Sasuke completely. His jaw clenches angrily and suddenly Sakura is on _fire_. It starts at her neck, where teeth invade flesh, and it spreads slowly and painfully outwards until her everything burns.

 

She can't be sure over the sound of her own sobbing but Sakura thinks she can hear it when Orochimaru's jaw unhinges to finally let her go. With a thud, she hits the branch below her much too hard and much too fast. She thinks her wrist sprains from the impact but she's in so much pain already she barely even registers it.

 

Shinobi are supposed to be resilient. They spent years sparring and training to make sure of that, but nothing Sakura has ever felt having her stomach kicked in or her cheek cut open by a freshly sharpened kunai could ever even compare to _this_. There was no course or teacher who had ever warned her that it was even humanly possible to hurt this badly.

 

"What did you do to her!?" Sasuke shouts from beside her, back on his feet now.

 

Orochimaru sighs heavily. All Sakura has done is annoy him. She's a nuisance to his plans, nothing more and nothing less. With his voice flat, he says, "doesn't she know it's rude to take someone else's gift? Oh, well, no need to worry, Sasuke-kun, I'll come back for you. Once she's dead."

 

Sasuke almost flinches at the word — _dead_. Sakura is going to die. Just like his family. And just like then, Sasuke didn't do anything to stop it. He was too weak to save someone he cares about _again_. Is he always going to be too weak?

 

He forms a fist, watching helplessly as Orochimaru vanishes.

 

"Sakura — " he looks down at her.

 

She's whimpering and convulsing at his feet. It's not the first time he's seen someone die but it's the first time he's seen it so drawn out. She looks so... pathetic. Not like when she runs out of breath first while they do laps or when she chews her lip and falls all over him. She's pathetic in the saddest way he's ever seen her. Crying and clutching at her neck, nails scraping at it like that will make whatever Orochimaru did stop. This is a girl who knows she's dying. This is his teammate. His teammate who has never experienced anything worse than being told her forehead is too big.

 

Sakura was supposed to be the annoying one who could never understand pain. She wasn't — he never _wanted_ her to understand pain. He just wanted her to leave him alone, he swears he never wished she would _die_.

 

"It's — it's going to be okay," he lies, taking her hand tentatively and tightening his grip when she doesn't seem to notice, "hey — Naruto! You better get your ass up! Sakura is hurt, you loser! We have to — we have to save her..."

 

Naruto doesn't move from where Sakura's kunai has him pinned. He's limp. Like Sasuke's —

 

He can't think about them. Naruto and Sakura aren't dead. He's not going to _let_ them die on him. They're going to live and get the heaven and earth scrolls and pass this stupid fucking exam. He's going to get them out of this. He has to.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Once he's safely moved both Naruto and Sakura to cover, Sasuke takes to setting up traps around them. His next step is to clean all their wounds. He starts with Sakura and tells himself the tomoe by the bite mark is a bruise that will heal. He moves onto Naruto only to find nothing but scratches. Then he elevates his leg, rolls his shorts up, and gets to work on where he stabbed his thigh. The burning feeling in it has gone dull and the bleeding has stopped but he can't be sure he's not just in shock. And if his leg gets infected, he won't be able to stand and guard over his comrades.

 

Sasuke won't let that happen. His teammates are not going to die because he was stupid and careless. He's going to protect them.

 

(Sakura sees darkness first. Then she sees herself. Six years old again and crying all by herself in a park. Sakura has always been fast to tears, her mother still calls her a cry baby.)

 

So Sasuke keeps watch, no matter how tired he gets or how many times his eyes try to close.

 

And then it's daybreak. And Naruto hasn't stirred even once and Sakura is still visibly in pain, but they're both breathing. He's taken to checking every fifteen minutes to make sure they're both alive.

 

(She feels lonely again, and sad. Empty. Like how she _always_ was before Ino smiled at her and decided she was good. She thought she crushed every memory of this feeling.)

 

He tells himself they would never leave him. Kakashi wouldn't let them. Those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. Naruto and Sakura aren't worse than scum. He knows that.

 

It's why he can't lose them.

 

(She hears all the taunts. They don't hurt nearly as bad at thirteen as they did as a kid. And then Ami is walking home the same way as her again, talking too loud with her friends about what a shitty kunoichi she is.)

 

Sasuke doesn't consciously activate his Sharingan at the sight of a squirrel running towards them. It's a reflex, but it saves them. He sees the paper bomb and he hurls a kunai before the squirrel. It's just close enough to make it change its course.

 

He wonders if Naruto or Sakura would've removed the bomb to save the squirrel. He knows they would.

 

("It's no wonder Sakura's parents wanted to just marry her off. I feel sooo bad for Sasuke-kun. Even Naruto-baka is more competent than Sakura!" Ami giggles a few feet ahead of her, "Sakura's not good for anything. Her _poor_ parents.")

 

"Show yourself!" Sasuke calls out, second kunai in hand.

 

The three sound nin who made Kabuto cough up blood appear with barely a scratch on them.

 

(Ami turns to her mother, fighting with Papa again. Whispered hisses of what a disappointment Sakura is, voices hushed to keep her from hearing but still biting as ever. Sakura knows all of this already. She's always known this is how people think of her.)

 

The big one, Dosu, sees through the below trap with ease. None of them even consider the above trap but it's clumsy. Sasuke is talented, yes, but he's a fighter. He's meant to stop enemies from closing in with fists and red eyes.

 

But maybe he's not even good at that — would his team really be so endangered if he was?

 

(Their voices get louder as Sakura watches from behind the kitchen door. "She's probably off getting herself and her teammates killed right now, Kizashi!" A plate hits the ground and shatters. Sakura flinches, feeling even smaller than before.)

 

"I really thought the last of the Uchiha would be more impressive, didn't you, Zaku?" Dosu asks, toying with the metal brace on his arm.

 

Zaku stretches his arms playfully. "I didn't," he sneers, "now let's get this over with. We're supposed to kill him, right?"

 

(There's a girl on a bench, clutching a ribbon and a hitai-ate with shaking hands. She's crying. Alone. _Again_. "They're all dead," she chokes out, "because of you! If you weren't so useless —" she doubles over, hands in her hair. Sakura sees the bodies now. Sasuke choked on his own blood. Naruto limp and lifeless and broken. Kakashi-sensei with both his eyes gouged out. Ino — "everyone was right. You can't do _anything_. They would've been better off without you dragging them down!")

 

Sasuke is exhausted and his chakra is low and his leg still isn't right so he knows the most he can do is hold these guys off until Naruto wakes up and yells at him for getting his ass beat _again_. He knows Naruto will wake up to yell at him. He's counting on it.

 

And then Dosu's arm smacks into his gut, heavy and too fast for him to dodge on one leg.

 

(Orochimaru sneers at her, "you know how to make it stop, right?"

 

She thinks she does, she thinks she does, she thinks — )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway!!! ss isn't going to happen i don't think i'll rly do more than imply feelings for any ships bc this isn't a story abt ships But u can guarantee ss will only be platonic
> 
> also i rly love the idea of sakura just Loving her friends and sasuke also rly loving his friends but being a moron and not even realizing until smthng bad happens and everyone still being obsessed w sasuke and naruto and not even considering that sakura might be the one with the seal


End file.
